Dimensions
156 x 234 x 16mm
Mary Broad - highway robber, wife and mother of two - was to become one of the most famous women of late eighteenth century Britain. Convicted for theft and transported to Botany Bay at the age of twenty-two, there was nothing to set her apart from the other convict women of the First Fleet - until she achieved the impossible.
In 1791, with no end to the deprivations of life in the penal colony in sight, Mary escaped with her husband, young children, and a group of desperate fellow convicts. In an open boat they sailed from Sydney to the Dutch East Indies, their freedom lasting only a few months before they were imprisoned by the Dutch authorities and arrangements made to ship them back to England. There they would face the wrath of the authorities and likely execution.
Yet tales of the astonishing escape preceded Mary to London, and public sympathy was further aroused at the news that her husband and both children had died before reaching Britain. When she finally arrived at Newgate Prison in the spring of 1792, Mary was famous.
James Boswell, a celebrity of the London literary world since his bestselling biography of Dr Johnson, was so fascinated by the story that he met Mary and took up her cause. His advocacy proved so powerful that her life was spared and eventually she received a pardon.
Carolly Erickson has brought an incredible true story vividly to life, illuminating Mary's world and the horrors of transportation and the early penal settlement, and describing in gripping detail the remarkable story of her escape. 'The Girl From Botany Bay' combines all the fascination of our early history with page-turning drama.
